Adam Saenz, 08/06/12

Author, The Power of a Teacher

August has arrived, and you're heading back to the classroom, and all the familiar challenges will meet you there on Day One. Let me encourage you. Your efforts are valued, and what you do truly does matter. I'm living proof.

Eva Glettner, 08/06/12

Mother, blogger

Science continues to be marketed to young girls in all the wrong ways.

Terry Newell, 08/06/12

Founder, Leadership for a Responsible Society

Young people learn not just from their textbooks but from the way adults treat them. They learn not only from flowery words but from factual deeds.

Darell Hammond, 08/06/12

Chief Executive Officer, Kaboom

An elementary school without a playground? It seems unfathomable, but it is the sad reality for a surprising number of schools today.

Peter Meyer, 08/06/12

Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Let's hope that these efforts -- and their successes -- will motivate more school leaders to believe that they can and must face poverty squarely, in the classroom.

Ryan Hall, 08/06/12

Director of operations, Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School

Mastering algebra is also like doing push-ups. There's nothing about push-ups that you're going to need to know later in life or that you would have to employ in some way on a job. But the fact remains: push-ups make your body stronger. Algebra makes your brain stronger.

Steve Nelson, 08/06/12

Head of the Calhoun School in Manhattan

In every discipline, the most powerful learning comes when students are invited to inhabit someone else's perspective as a means to deeper understanding.

Frank Morgan, 08/06/12

Professor of Mathematics, Williams College

Searching for understanding is a good habit that has to be learned and relearned for real education. A high purpose of education is to develop such mental habits.

Matt Bieber, 08/06/12

Graduate student, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Divinity School; writer, www.thewheatandchaff.com

Peter Hershock is the author of Buddhism in the Public Sphere, which presents a set of Buddhist perspectives on a series of political and policy challenges.

Yonatan Neril, 08/04/12

Director, Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development

Why is the religious community so important in this regard? Because the environmental crisis conveys a deep message: the widespread human degradation of the natural world indicates that our way of life is out of balance

Turk Pipkin, 08/04/12

Writer, filmmaker, co-founder of The Nobelity Project

I've just returned from a 7,000 kilometer drive-and-work tour of East Africa and was inspired by the progress at all 15 of our Kenya School Fund projects. In the arid lands of Samburu, Daaba Primary is a dream come true.

Glen Lineberry, 08/05/12

High School Teacher

Sure, we want them to have jobs, and the sooner they're trained for them, the better. But we also need an educated citizenry -- to create the new jobs, raise the next generation, and protect the Republic -- and that's why we have public education.

Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, 08/06/12

Professor and director, University of Nebraska at Omaha's School of Communication

It is no longer a question of whether or not students are digital natives. I agree with those calling our students "mobile natives" -- they expect instant access from anywhere to current information and entertainment.

Kenzo Shibata, 08/02/12

Chicago Educator, Writer, Public Schools Advocate

It troubles me to think that that the teaching profession, which has traditionally been a gateway to the middle class for poor and working class children, is being scrapped to give temporary jobs to college graduates from elite institutions.

Michael Roth, 08/03/12

President, Wesleyan University

Sure, we have to pay attention to what our graduates will do with their education, and we must give them the skills to translate what they learn in classrooms to their lives after graduation. But we shouldn't reduce our understanding of "their lives after graduation" to their very first job.

Michael Haberman, 08/03/12

President, PENCIL

Summer jobs correlate with increased income and better job security later in life -- by hiring teens, businesses invest in the future.

John Affeldt, 08/03/12

Managing Attorney at Public Advocates, a non-profit civil rights law firm; twice recognized as California Attorney of the Year

Let's call the HQT amendment what it really is: a farce of a law that undermines equal access to fully trained teachers for our neediest students